Tender Is the Flesh

Tender is the Flesh is one of the most disturbing but also one of the more beautifully written books I have read in some time. In the vein of Clive Barker and his Books of Blood, the tale told will not leave you for days. Can you handle a bite? Recommended By Lauren M, Powells.com

Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans — though no one calls them that anymore.

His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the "Transition." Now, eating human meat — "special meat" — is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.

Then one day he's given a gift: a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he's aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost — and what might still be saved.

"Grimly engrossing with a sucker-punch ending." — The Times

"It is a testament to Bazterrica's skill that such a bleak book can also be a page-turner. An unrelentingly dark and disquieting look at the way societies conform to committing atrocities." — Kirkus Reviews

"This translated prizewinner by Argentinian novelist Bazterrica exquisitely dishes up an intricate tale of a systematized dystopian society... a sagacious and calculated exploration of the limits of moral ambiguity; it sears and devastates." — Booklist (Starred Review)

Agustina Bazterrica is an Argentinian novelist and short story writer. She is a central figure in the Buenos Aires literary scene. She won the prestigious Premio Clarin Novela for her second novel, Tender Is the Flesh, which has been translated into twenty-three languages. Several of the stories in Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird have also won awards, including First Prize in the 2004/2005 City of Buenos Aires Awards for Unpublished Stories and First Prize in the Edmundo Valadés Awards for the Latin American Short Story, among others.